An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

First, To preserve, and that two wales; first, by protecting from those evils which others would bring upon us (Psal. 141.9.) Keep me from the snare which they have laid. That is, Protect me from the danger which their snares threaten me with. So at the 12th verse of this Chapter, Thy visitation doth preserve my spirit. Secondly, It is rendered to preserve by sparing, or not bringing those evils upon us, which our own sins have deserved. So the Vulgar here, who to make out his sense,¹ puts the later part into the form of an interrogation, If I have sinned, and thou hast spared me for a time, Wherefore then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity? As if the meaning of Job were this. When in former times I sinned against thee, thou wast pleased to remit of thy severity, and deal gently with me, Thou didst spare me, as a father spareth a son that serveth him. Why is the tenor of thy dispensations so much changed from what it was, seeing thou art a God, that changest not, and I am but what I was, a weak and changeable man? Why am I now charged with sin, and not set free as sometimes (I have been) from sorrow, the fruit of it? Wilt thou deal with me, who sin out of infirmity, or against my will, as with those who are wicked, and have a will to sin?

First, To preserve, and that two wales; first, by protecting from those evils which others would bring upon us (Psal. 141.9.) Keep me from the snare which they have laid. That is, Protect me from the danger which their snares threaten me with. So at the 12th verse of this Chapter, Thy visitation doth preserve my spirit. Secondly, It is rendered to preserve by sparing, or not bringing those evils upon us, which our own sins have deserved. So the Vulgar here, who to make out his sense,¹ puts the later part into the form of an interrogation, If I have sinned, and thou hast spared me for a time, Wherefore then dost thou not acquit me from mine iniquity? As if the meaning of Job were this. When in former times I sinned against thee, thou wast pleased to remit of thy severity, and deal gently with me, Thou didst spare me, as a father spareth a sonne that serveth him. Why is the tenour of thy dispensations so much changed from what it was, seeing thou art a God, that changest not, and I am but what I was, a weak and changeable man? Why am I now charged with sinne, and not set free as sometimes (I have been) from sorrow, the fruit of it? Wilt thou deal with me, who sinne out of infirmity, or against my will, as with those who are wicked, and have a will to sin?